Yongsan is a Waste Land

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Koreans who go to Yongsan are surprised, just as they are at many US bases, because of the stark difference between their own bases and their cities and towns. Due to their mandatory military service, Korea doesn’t have to worry much about quality of life for its soldiers or retention and recruitment. Plus, it has been drummed into them since at least the 1990s that USFK hasn’t given a damn about the Korean people, and the US military has polluted the bases beyond repair. Somehow, though, the fail to take a look around their own cities and factories at the same time they are screaming about “environmental crimes” by the US military.

This is one of the too frequent “mind-block issues” where Korea’s (racial) hypocrisy will leave you scratching your head - because Koreans are not ignorant people.

But somehow, it never really occurs to them they are being exasperatingly hypocritical when they can't find a way to assault Korean conglomerates (chaebols) like Hyundai but use “environmental concern” as a perfect tool to drum up anti-Americanism.

(Click on the image to the right to go to Green Korea United’s site. Click on their About link then the Our Mission. They began solely as an anti-USFK group, but they have expanded to anti-nuclear and anti-reclamation as their specific entities to attack. Still no anti-Daewoo or Pohang Steel or Hyundai chaebol campaigns….)

Look at this link where I give a brief show of the hypocrisy.  During the period covered, one of the two major English language newspapers wrote 6 articles with specific claims of pollution by Korean companies (none of the big boys), but it wrote 26 articles attacking specific USFK issues. This doesn’t even count the generic “USFK is killing our land” articles or the “evil SOFA” rants.

This review will specifically cover the spikes in anti-Americanism caused by USFK’s Yongsan HQ in Seoul and the US Embassy complex nearby. These issues didn’t really produce their own spikes in hate. They just popped up to add fuel to the flames during other peaks in anger.

I have already covered the Great 2000 Water Dumping scandal -- that threatened “10 million Korean lives” -- and the Camp Eagle and Camp Long “environmental crimes” which were similar to Yongsan. Again, what I hope to accomplish with these newsletters is to expose the process of anti-Americanism in Korea. The Yongsan Movement outrage in this issue is one very useful, long term tactic, and the environment is even better.

The Yongsan Oil Leak environmental crime concerned the discovery of oil contamination during construction work at a Seoul subway.

The Korean media, at least the English language press, was much better at presenting statements by the Korean government and USFK rebutting the usual anti-American civic groups, primarily Green Korea that “made its bones” with the 2000 Water Dumping significant spike in hate - which happened to come as the SOFA was being revised and the SK-NK Summit Joy was in full swing.

But, the editorial below shows how most Koreans interpreted the Yongsan case --

[EDITORIALS] Uncle Polluter Joongang Daily 05.31.02

United States Forces Korea has accepted partial responsibility for leaking oil found at the Noksapyeong subway station in Seoul and said it would repair and compensate for the damage. That is a good sign in the year-long dispute between Korea and United States.

When Korean authorities found in March 2001 that 10 liters of oil was leaking daily from a spot 100 meters toward Itaewon from Noksapyeong Station, fingers were pointed toward Yongsan Garrison. The U.S. authorities dug 22 wells on the base and found that oil was leaking from two sites, but they denied any direct link between the on-base leakage and the Noksapyeong Station leak.

The area nearby where the United States Forces are stationed has been called an environmental disaster area; there have been frequent oil leaks there. Green Korea United, an environmental watch group, said that since 1990 there have been 21 discovered. Fourteen have occurred since 2000. There may have been other spills in the past that were hidden from the public.

Decrepit oil tanks and pipelines on the base and lax management can trigger frequent oil spills. Oil contamination of soil and aquifers involves heavy repair costs and has serious consequences. The U.S. government should pay more attention to improving its on-base oil facilities. The matter can no longer be overlooked or buried in silence.

Please look back at the visual review of how the Korean media covers pollution by its own factories. Go to the archives of the main papers and search for pollution. You will find a lot of generic articles describing the poor quality of the environment in Korea, but very few that name who did it, except USFK.

Notice also how, as usual, the Korean media worked hand in hand with the anti-US civic group leaders --- like the Priest Clown shown above right --- and buried the rebuttals of the US military --

Activists say soil on U.S. base is destroyed Joongang Daily 08.02.02

Green Korean United, an environmental activist group, said Monday soil contamination at the U.S. military base in Yongsan, Seoul, is at a serious level, with thousands of tons of earth “soaked with oil” and beyond restoration. Green Korea said soil samples it took from several locations in Yongsan Garrison contained petroleum elements that exceeded environmental standards. In an independent analysis of the soil by Korea Resources Corp., levels of petroleum hydrocarbons requiring urgent treatment were found, the group said. At 8,638 milligrams of petroleum elements per kilogram of sample, the soil from the base exceeds the 5,000 milligrams per kilogram standard set by the ministry, an official at the Korea Resources' lab said. Korea Resources is a public corporation. About 60 metric tons of contaminated soil taken from the grounds of the officers' club near Gate 10 has been removed from the base for treatment, he said. Another 2,000 tons unearthed from near the athletic facilities near Gate 17 awaits disposal pending U.S. government funding. The new heating system will use natural gas and geothermal energy, Mr. Oertwig said.

(Click on this link to see Green Korea at work)

But Green Korea said the level of contamination is so high that no biological treatment will restore the soil. The only proper treatment would be incineration, the group said. The group also argued that the bigger issue at stake is that the USFK has not notified the Korean government about the contamination, Green Korea said. Such notification is not required under the Status of Forces Agreement, Mr. Oertwig said, because the contamination is contained within the base. He added that the Ministry of Environment was aware of the problem through a number of channels, including directly from the USFK.

The Seoul government said Monday its independent analysis of samples taken from the base showed contamination levels within environmental limits.

The many articles you will find in the Korean news archives over Yongsan are not all related to one claim --

City reports more oil on embassy site Joongang Daily 12.11.02

An oil leak was reported last week just outside the compound, which is near a U.S. military installation in the city's Yongsan district.  “The embassy excavated five locations inside its compound in Namyeong-dong to survey the suspected oil leak,” said a city government official who took part in the inspection.

The city, the embassy and the Ministry of Environment began inspecting the compound, which houses the embassy's Public Affairs and General Services Offices, after environmental activists reported oil outside.  The embassy is checking the compound's three fuel tanks for leaks, the official said. In an earlier statement the embassy said it would “clean the area in accordance with Korean government standards” if the leak originated on its property.

I was back in Korea at this time.  I remember seeing on one of the three networks a clip of one of the anti-US civic groups, I believe Green Korea, outside the embassy compound with a backhoe digging up the street.  

One of the young riot police stationed near US structures came and tried to stop them.  He was manhandled in the Korean form of semi-violence where kicks and pushing and pulling and maybe a slap are acceptable, but punches aren't.  He eventually ran away.  

The group dug a hole several feet deep, and oily water was coming from the soil and produced a little well of it where they had dug.  Again, my point in this is, if they take their backhoe and dig on most city streets especially near gas stations and Korean operated industrial sites, they will find the same thing.  Funny how they don't do that though?

Environmentalists Allege Oil Leak at US Facility Chosun Daily 12.03.02

…insisting that it is certain the oil leak is from the US embassy facility. According the Korean Federation of Environmental Movements, there have been 38 environmental contamination cases in USFK camp neighborhoods since 1990, including Noksapyeong Station oil leak in July, 2001, and the 8th Army Religious Retreat Center heating oil leak in October this year.

I have a friend from high school who graduated from Georgia Tech as an environmental engineer. He spends his days working on soil contamination caused by fuel tank leaks. He said 80% of the gas stations you pass in the US have some soil problem.

So I have absolutely no doubt whatsoever there are environmental problems on and near US bases. I also have absolutely no doubt the exact same problems -- not crimes -- can be found around 80% of the tanks at Korean gas stations and factories. But why don’t we see great public campaigns to eradicate the “crimes” of these Korean polluters?

I will present two examples a little later to show what I mean then briefly give you an example of how high the double standard is for USFK by bringing in one note from the 2000 water dumping.

The point here is that the sources of the soil contamination were never linked directly to USFK. Who knows how long they had been there or where they came from. Very possibly USFK, but also perhaps any number of the pollutors that have used the land nearby during the Japanese colonial period and during Korea’s rapid industrialization known as the Miricale on the Han.

U.S. Embassy to clean up oily soil at Yongsan Joongang Daily 01.18.03

(This is a 2003 article on the latest charge of terrible contamination)

The oil, which also spread outside the boundaries of the compound, is expected to be cleaned up as early as this month in accordance with the environmental standards of the Korean government

The embassy and the Seoul Metropolitan Government, however, said they could not confirm that the leak originated at the embassy facility. “Despite a number of joint surveys, we could not trace the exact source of the leak,” a city official said. The official said a tentative agreement was reached that the most likely sources were old underground oil tanks formerly on the site and the embassy agreed to pay for the clean-up.

An official at the embassy said, “The fact of the matter is that oil is on our soil. There are no tanks now, and we agreed to go ahead and clean it up.”

Here are two articles about the 2001 leak that actually ran into the 2002 claim.

Oil in Water Is Not From U.S. Military Joongang Daily 08.17.01

The Ministry of Environment and the Seoul Metropolitan Government are puzzled after finding that the U.S. military base at Yongsan did not pollute spring water under the Noksapyeong subway station, which is adjacent to the base.  After analyzing and comparing the samples taken from the drill bits at the army base and manholes and water tanks at the subway station, the ministry reported Thursday that gasoline was detected on the drill bits while kerosene was found in the water tanks.

US Base Cleared of Oil Leaks Chosun Daily 08.16.01

Kim Ji-tae, director of the ministry's political coordination division, said that cross-comparisons between samples from Noksapyeong Station and Yongsan base showed no match and therefore, it cannot be said that the polluting element was discharged from the base. Kim said that the samples from Noksapyeong Station contained kerosene and very little or no gasoline; whereas the two samples taken from holes drilled in Yongsan were both gasoline.

As I noted above, however, the dominate message in Korean society was that Yongsan was a waste land, just another one in the whole of Korea, destroyed by the US military.

Below are a couple of the 6 articles I found in the Korea Times relating to specific cases of pollution by non-USFK entities. Remember that the USFK ones for this period came to 26.

Army Base in Ulchin Slammed for Dumping Wastes 04.16.01

(1 Kudo to Green Korea)

A Korean army unit previously stationed near a forest reserve in Uljin, Kyongsang-pukto was found to have polluted the environment by illegally dumping waste matter, Green Korea United (GKU), a major environmental group, claimed yesterday. “The army camp had continuously polluted the area with waste since the 1970s and transferred in December of last year without carrying out suitable clean-up measures,” GKU said in a statement. GKU said more than 100 tons of various garbage, such as food waste, packaging materials and aluminum cans were found in the forest reserve. ”If waste buried in the ground is included, the total in the area is estimated to amount to more than 1,000 tons,” they said.

I found one article in the Korea Times about this case. One.

Military Wastewater Facilities to Be Inspected 10.30.00

(Korean facilities, not USFK)

Amid growing concerns of environmental pollution in military units, wastewater treatment facilities installed there will be inspected for the first time in mid-November. Lawmaker Park In-sang of the ruling Millennium Democratic Party had first raised the issue of wastewater management at military units in a parliamentary inspection conducted on Oct. 19. He said that 71.2 percent or 649 of the 912 military units stationed near the Han River are not equipped with treatment facilities, causing water pollution in the area.

This came around the time of the Great Han USFK Pollution Crime that kept the press and civic groups and office water cooler talk jumping for months. In fact, every few months, right up to now (Fall 2003), you will run across an article about how the Korean prosecutors are still trying to arrest the USFK civilian worker who ordered the dumping.

But, again, I found just one article about the Korean military base pollution mentioned above, and certainly nothing about arrests. Which if they did come, the Korean soldiers would stand trial in a Military Court. They are NEVER brought before civilian courts even for something like murdering a civilian. But Koreans went nuts over the idea that a USFK court martial could “judge its own” during the 2002 Tank Accident spike in hate.

Two years later (11.04.02) the Korea Herald ran a story about a group of unzoned and illegal small businesses set up on the banks of the resevoir on the Han Seoul’s drinking water --- which nobody drinks --- comes from --- the same river and water Koreans went nuts over during the 2000 Dumping scandal.

These businesses had been fined 16 times for dumping wastes directly into the water. Some restaurants had no sewage treatment system at all!! The city official explained that it was cheaper to pay the fines than install the environmental hardware.

But a one time dumping of fromalehyde in a base sewage system processed twice before touching the Han deserves jail time?

For an American………just as with the tank accident in 2002, Korea handles these matters with civil fines. Not prison.

And as we have seen, the Korean press doesn’t spend months of ink ralling against these Korean polluters…..they are too busy promoting the objectives of groups like Green Korea.

The great thing about this tactic of the environment is it will never go away. Yongsan might move south, as long planned, but no matter where it goes, other bases will be targets. And eventually, the new Yongsan base will get some contamination, and the ultra standards applied only to USFK will provide great ammunition --- this is ammunition that will never run out…